Indian progressive death outfit Gaijin have a new baby album on the way and are streaming the first track here. It definitely has my attention, and the touch of producer Pierre Rémillard is apparent. Look for it on November 7th.

If you’re dying for new Fallujah material, you might want to take a look at Kardashev. Their new track, “Lux,” is more than a little reminiscent of last year’s The Flesh Prevails in terms of overall tone, but they pull it off without completely aping the former. Peripety drops on the 30th via Subliminal Groove.

There’s a new Abhorrent track. You already know how good it is. Check it out here.

It feels like forever ago that First Fragment announced they were working on new material, and now we’ve got our first fragment of the new album (HAHAHA SEE WHAT I DID THERE). These guys are fantastic musicians; I heartily recommend you go through Jack Bauer’s First Fragment primer and give their EP a go around.

Watchtower (whom I touched on briefly last week) just released three tracks out of fucking nowhere. Check out the teaser here; links to buy and listen are in the description.

I’ve been growing increasingly fond of tech death bands that don’t sound like tech death bands lately (see: Abhorrent Decimation). I’m not entirely sure why, but I think that if you were to plot it all out, you’d see a positive correlation between it and my desire to punch people and a negative correlation with my desire to think. Thankfully, Demiurgon have provided the perfect soundtrack to accompany my repressed rage. Above The Unworthy is a powerhouse of an album, with highly technical playing encased in an OSDM shell. The delivery is akin to the likes of Suffocation and Immolation (and tons of other -ation bands, I’m sure), with tons of pinch harmonics, endless double bass and blastbeats, and sudden tempo and time changes. The guitarists fly across the fretboard effortlessly, but they’re not afraid to rein it in occasionally for pure headbanging goodness. “Pillars of an Inverted Creation” and “Apogee of a Collapsing Humanity” leave trails of fire in their wake, while bruisers “Rex Mundi” and “Dead Land Seasons” will leave you bruised and broken in the dirt. This one-two punch continues throughout the album, reaching its climax on “The Shapeless Almighty,” blending the best of both worlds.

And then, just like that, it’s over. The music blows over you like a whirlwind and cuts off at the end of “The Shapeless Almighty,” suddenly dropping into a short but ominous acoustic outro. It’s a jarring transition to say the least; really, it’s more like driving into a brick wall at top speed without wearing a seat belt. The album builds a ton of momentum over its 36-minute duration, and that sudden stop will send you hurdling through your windshield.

Above the Unworthy is available now, and Demiurgon can be found on Facebook. Go show them some sweet Toilet lovin’. That’s all for this week, and as always,